


Let's Run Away Together (Volume One)

by redisriding



Category: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Adult Content, Angst, Domestic Violence, Explicit Language, F/M, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:15:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27351073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redisriding/pseuds/redisriding
Summary: Based on the Tumblr prompt "Let's run away together" - For Nessian.
Relationships: Nesta Archeron/Cassian, Nesta Archeron/Tomas Mandray
Comments: 1
Kudos: 26





	Let's Run Away Together (Volume One)

“Let’s run away together.”

Those words clanged through Nesta as she sat at her kitchen table watching the clock on her oven tick over.

It had seemed like the answer to everything at the time. Now, she was sure that it was all a lie designed to hurt her all the more when she lost the last thing she had. Hope.

***

_He had seemed so sure that it was the answer too. He had just blurted the words out as Nesta had begun to move away from him, for fear of who might see and what it would mean._

_She had turned back to him and found his hazel eyes locked on hers. He didn’t appear drunk. No, he appeared quite the opposite. Lucid and sober, his face held all the tentative hope that she would accept his offer, the opportunity that he had presented to her._

_Nesta knew she couldn’t trust herself to read him, to make a judgement as to his sincerity. Not when she always seemed to make the wrong decisions these days, but then that was what happened when alcohol and whatever other shit her boyfriend had given her that night coursed through her body._

_She tore her eyes away from his handsome, open, face, to take the breadth of his shoulders, the t-shirt straining against the hard muscle of his biceps, those strong forearms that flowed into big hands. Nesta loosened a breath. All she wanted to do was press herself up against his chest and feel those arms wrap around her. To feel protected, just for a few moments. She knew he could help make all the badness go away._

_But maybe his strength and physicality would just hurt more in the end. When the punches started._

_As if on cue an arm wrapped around her waist, as that scrawny body pressed against hers. “How many times do I need to tell you to stay away from my girlfriend, asshole?”_

_“Thomas…” she whispered in warning. Not that he ever listened to her. His hand dug possessively into the flesh of her waist, but his focus was on Cassian._

_Cassian who raised his hands in surrender. He had learned that he would just make things worse for her if he tried to fight for her. “I’m just ordering a drink mate.”_

_“Order it from one of the other girls next time,” Thomas snapped as he began to drag Nesta away, “Come on baby, let’s go.”_

_Nesta let herself be dragged behind the bar. She looked back at Cassian. Of course he was watching her. He always did._

_He was primed to jump out of his seat and flatten Thomas if Nesta gave him so much as a hint that that would help her. It wouldn’t. What came now was for her to bare alone. Sadness flooded Cassian’s face as Nesta was pulled into the little office space._

_Suddenly Thomas was on her. His body banging against the office door to keep it closed. His hands in her hair forcing her onto her knees. She made quick work of his belt, before undoing the button and zip of his jeans. She knew he needed to feel like a man. That this was the only thing that would placate him now._

_She pulled the hard length of him free, stroking it a few times gently before wrapping her lips around the tip and sucking. The aggression in Thomas didn’t leave him as it normally did when he was in her mouth. Tonight that fact only seemed to take him up another gear, especially has he repositioned his grip on her head and thrust himself down her throat._

_Nesta was unprepared for his sudden presence. She gagged against him, spluttering. She knew he had recognised his mistake as he withdrew quickly. Only to be proven incorrect as he slammed himself into her again and again in a brutal onslaught. A claiming. He didn’t care if it hurt her._

_Her scalp screamed in pain, her neck jerking, as Thomas took another rough grip of her hair. She couldn’t breathe. Her throat was full with him. Her eyes and nose streaming. No this was too much. She needed to stop it._

_Oh his next thrust Nesta bit down hard. Thomas yelped in pain._

_“You bitch.”_

_By the hair Thomas yanked her to her feet. She whimpered as he moved, slamming her against the door, trapping her between it and his body. He moved his grip to her throat, so tight that again she was struggling to breath. Her eyes rolled back in her head. She was going to pass out…_

_Thomas’s hand began moving quickly on himself. With a grunt she felt him finish against her. The sticky liquid dripped down her bare thigh as he clean himself on her shorts._

_“You’re nothing but a worthless whore,” he spat at her, “go get yourself cleaned up and get back to work.”_

_He released her throat with a sharp movement. Stepping away from her as if she might come for him. It was all the space Nesta needed, she turned throwing the door open she moved as fast as she could along the corridor to get to the staff bathroom. She didn’t dare glance back at the bar to see if he was watching._

_The tears had begun to fall before she had even closed the door on the stall. She pulled a wad of toilet paper off the roll. First cleaning her leg and then taking another strip to wipe her face._

_She sat there waiting for the numbness to wash over her again. A sharp knock on the door interrupted her spiralling thoughts._

_“Come on, I need to piss,” yelled Ianthe._

_Nesta pushed the door open, hoping her face didn’t betray her. Ianthe looked her up and down. “You have a private dance waiting in room four,” she said leading Nesta to believe that she had got away with it, until she added with a sneer, “you better hope he likes them messy.”_

_Nesta felt her hard exterior slide back into place as she headed upstairs to room four. She was a professional, and these guys knew they were buying girls so strung out they weren’t in the room beyond physically. Her client certainly wouldn’t care about her streaked makeup so long as he saw some flesh._

_That strength she had found climbing up the stairs evaporated as soon as she saw who was sitting in the room. His was big body was sprawled across one of the benches. Leaning back, his big thighs were spread wide, his arms draped across the back, half drank beer bottle held lazily in one had. His body was the picture of relaxed. She wanted to crawl into his lap and bury herself against his side._

_It was his face however was hard and full of pain as he looked at her. “Nes—”_

_Her voice was too high and quivered, as she began to deliver her usual disclaimer, “There is no touching, and phones and cameras are not permitted during this—“ she glanced at how long he had booked the room for, “two hours?”_

_He just nodded._

_“That is the rest of my shift.”_

_“I know.”_

_Nesta moved towards the small music centre and cued a track. She didn’t want to think about how much this small act of kindness cost him. To keep her away from the leering eyes and groping eyes of the men downstairs was one thing, but she knew he had done it to keep her boyfriend away from her until he calmed down. Calmed down and came looking to make things up to her with a needle that would make her forget._

_As the music began she walked towards Cassian, allowing her hips to sway in the hope it would disguise the tremble that rocked through her._

_“Nes,” he said, in warning, as he sat forward on the beach. All that beautiful ease of him becoming hard tension._

_“Cass,” she whispered._

_“Nes, I don’t want this.”_

_“Don’t want what?”_

_“This. I don’t want to do this.”_

_It would have been less a shock if he had slapped her. She lost her nerve, coming to a stop in front of him, she felt the tears prick in her eyes. She looked away quickly, blinking hard. “I thought you wanted me,” she whispered._

_“I do.”_

_“Then let me do this for you.”_

_“No Nes,” he said, his voice dropping to a whisper to match her own, “I want you. The real you. Not this.”_

_The tears that had been pooling in Nesta’s eyes began spilling down her cheeks._

_“Oh sweetheart! Can I touch you? Nes, can I hold you?”_

_Still without looking at him she nodded. She didn’t trust herself to speak. She wanted to know what it felt like to be held by him. To feel his warmth wrap around her, and breath in the smell of him. To feel protected._

_“Yes?”_

_She nodded again._

_Cassian seemed happy to accept her. In one swift movement, he had her off the floor and into his lap. Cradling her against his chest, his arms wrapped firmly around her._

_It was not like with Thomas who’s touch was cruel and brutal. Cassian, despite his size and menacing air, was soft and gentle, and touched her with a tenderness that shattered everything in Nesta. A sob broke from her. Cassian tightened his arms around her and began to rock her slowly._

_For two hours he held her against him letting her cry, alternating between stroking her hair and wiping away her tears. He pressed delicate kisses against her forehead,_

_but mostly he just told her stories of how her sisters had sent him to find her, how they missed her and wanted her to come home. How much he wanted her to come home too. How he had searched for her, turning over every rock and stone, following every lead until one eventually lead him to her. How he had come to get her out, to take her away._

_And as the two hours finally drew to a close he whispered “let’s run away together.”_

***

He wasn’t going to show and she knew it. 

Nothing good happened in her life anymore. 

Being with Cassian last night had been too perfect. The night would live on in her memory forever unblemished.

It would sustain her for years to come.

A night she would allow herself to think of only in her darkest moments, when feeling that warm golden spread that came with the memory of him would be the only thing to pull her back from the brink.

Nesta glanced at the clock as the numbers switched from 19:59 to 20:00. 

It was time.

She knew she was as fool for believing, but she had to. The last 24 hours were the best she had had in a long time, and it was all because she believed that tonight they were going to run away together. 

She had laughed at herself for packing a bag with the few belongings she had, but she couldn’t ignore the voice of hope that rang through her. What if he did come for her. What if she did get to leave this place, her job, her boyfriend. What if the money she had left out on the table would be used by her landlord to discharge this month’s rent rather than by her that night to buy something to numb the pain that she knew was inevitable. Hope, beautiful, cruel hope.

So she believed that he was going to show, because it was better than the cold empty despair that consumed her every other day, and she wasn’t going to stop believing until she absolutely had to. 

With one final glance around her grimy apartment, she swung her bag over her shoulder and headed for the door.


End file.
